Hello Australia! - "Operation Fortitude" did not live up to its name - Rescuers race to save refugees on the Mediterranean - Are Japan's Yakuza gangs looking for a return to the bad old days? - And more in your CareerSpot World News Briefs:

Officials now say that Australian Border Force (ABF) agents will not go ahead with "Operation Fortitude" in Melbourne's CBD after all.  It follows a major public backlash against the announcement to have paramilitaries in crisp new (and expensive) uniforms roaming around, demanding to see the papers of people perceived to be foreigners.  The idea met with widespread suspicion and ridicule on social media, and protesters were already gathering at Flinders Street Station.  Officials originally insisted that agents would only speak to people referred to them, and would not target people by race or religion.  Now, they won't do it at all.  Announced at 10:14 AM, cancelled by 2:40 PM.

It's only been a few hours since Europe's last refugee tragedy and already rescuers are racing to save migrants in the Mediterranean.  Two boats carrying around 500 refugees sank off of Libya's northwestern coast.  As happened in two other mass drownings this month, scores of people were locked into the cargo holds with no way to get out in case of emergency.  A Libyan security official says 200 people have been rescued - the people on board came from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco, and Bangladesh. Earlier on Thursday, police in Austria found a truck with the decomposing bodies of as many as 50 refugees.

The UN says 2,400 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far this year.  100,000 made it to Italy, 150,000 made it to Greece. 

Colombia and Venezuela have recalled their ambassadors from their respective capitals, after Caracas ordered the closing of a major border crossing and a weeklong crackdown on Colombian migrants and smugglers.  Earlier, their foreign ministers attempted a meeting but reached no agreement.  Some 6,000 Colombians who had fled across the border to escape drug gang violence spent this week crossing back from Venezuela.

North Korea's state-run media - which usually doesn't like to admit that anything is wrong - aired video of terrible flooding in the far north of the country, which forecasters say was caused by the storm once known as Typhoon Goni.  At least 40 people are believed to be dead, and the video shows heavy damage to apartment blocks.

Police in Japan are bracing for a possible Yakuza war.  The country's main organized crime syndacite - the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-Gumi - is splitting up.  About a dozen local affiliates are breaking off to form their own group, to be called Yamaken-Gumi.  They accuse the kumicho (godfather) Kenichi Shinoda of showing favoritism towards certain sub-groups, and they're nervous over his expansion eastward into the terrorities of the Tokyo gangs, the Sumiyoshi-Kai and Inagawa-Kai.

Thailand has issued an arrest warrant for the suspect in the bombing of a canal in Bangkok.  A suspect in a blue shirt was seen kicking a package into the canal just before the blast on 17 August.  No one was injured, but it rattled the Thai capital just hours after another bomb killed more than 20 people at the popular Erawan Shrine.

Saudi Arabia is reporting a surge in Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) cases.  The viral infection causes fever and cough, and 19 people have died of it just this week.  This is happening just weeks before millions of Muslims visit the country during The Hajj religious pilgrimage next month.